The Civic Plaza Lights Up Downtown
Hot chocolate and urbanism at its finest.
Happy Thursday, everyone.
Last week’s newsletter - a somewhat necessary commentary on the state of *all this* - is hopefully the last capital N newsletter I want to write for a few months. The ethos I intend to stick a bit closer to is less a “is everything collapsing and how do we stop it?” and more of a “here’s why wide sidewalks on George St. are good.”
So with that said, thank you for indulging THAT Newsletter but welcome back to the newsletter.
Last night, Britt and I met up with some friends at the Festival of Trees and the outdoor festival at the Civic Plaza and it was an excellent example of many of the things this newsletter tries to stand for.
So - today- nothing crazy, nothing complicated, nothing existential.
Just some good ol’ fashion pointing at things downtown and saying “more of this, please!”
A place becomes The Place.
The Festival was a banger and I don’t use that word lightly (mostly because I am a 33 year old man).
An unabashed success, I hope the City, Tourism PG, Spirit of the North, and all the other organizers and funders are celebrating themselves today. The vibe was immaculate, the music was wonderful (shout to to Russel AV for the new stage and light setup), and the free hot chocolate was flowing in my veins.
A container market to the one side, an indoor market and tree showcase on the other, and a VERY well maintained skating rink right down the middle.
Benches. Picnic tables. Well maintained paths. Signage. BATHROOMS.
The reason I am really emphasizing the success FIRST is because people remember these things and how they felt.
Last night was a festival, and for now, the Plaza is just a place, but give it a few more years - a few snowball fights, some selfies with Mr. PG, a few generations of first dates - and suddenly it’s not a place but it’s The Place.
You know how a house feels kind of weird when you move in to it? Even after you’ve hung up your artwork, got your furniture sorted - it’s just a bit strange?
It’s missing the memories and those only take place over years, maybe decades, of filling that house with people and warmth and funny stories and eventually, it builds on itself to the point where it is undeniably a home.
I think last night’s Festival undeniably unlocked a new tier of downtown winter event and MAYBE can only be compared to the Canada Winter Games in 2015?
Having the perception of downtown change will be a game of inches, not miles. When Tourism PG selected the Civic Plaza as their new home, I wrote about how I hoped this could be a beacon for other organizers to rally around.
My hope is that this event, and the others who have tried the same thing (looking at you, Crossroads Street Festival, Summerfest, etc) can keep building on its momentum and maybe, one day, make some permanent decisions that help make our downtown carry these car-less, people-centric event vibes into every day functional life.
The compounding effect of people out walking downtown.
I just want to recap my walk to the event because it’s a good place to start thinking about the invisible ways urbanism affects our feeling of safety.
We parked near The Keg to avoid the usual mess of congestion near big events, pedestrians darting in and out (and also to walk off the way-too-many tacos we had just eaten for dinner).
Families and other small groups hustling along 7th and Patricia, skates dangling from their hands and walking through the (well plowed) sidewalks toward the Plaza. The vehicles normally barrelling down Dominion forced to crawl along at 35 km/hr because of all the increased foot traffic.
Was there still gatherings of unhoused folks around that the Reddit comments are usually keen to say are the reason no one goes downtown? Definitely, that corridor is full of assisted/transitional shelters - but, as is almost always the case, largely keeping to themselves and going about their business.
I am pausing to point this out specifically because I want to try to articulate a nuanced empathy for people who feel unsafe or uncomfortable downtown. Sometimes, there’s unpredictable behaviour or an uncomfortable conversation waiting for you at a street corner and as a 6’0, 240lb dude, I’m not the most qualified to say whether you should or shouldn’t feel some level of unsafe about that - Brittany has worked downtown for 4 years and has had her share of fairly concerning run-ins and I think dismissing those is a way urbanists or “the left” can sometimes come across as out of touch.
Anyways, there are many things that also contribute to this feeling. The big bright flood lights near the Canfor pool are excellent, those big wide sidewalks are excellent, the fact vehicles were driving slowly was excellent.
The main difference though? The streets were busy with people, not just cars.
People who had eaten downtown were heading over to the Plaza for the event. We saw groups of people leaving Crossroads and The Black Clover clearly choosing to walk, not drive. Parents bringing their kids over from the Canfor pool to see what was going on.
That decision to walk, not drive, is largely driven by other people’s decision to walk, not drive. It’s compounding. The effect of safety and social permission is compounded by everyone else - you know that if something unpredictable did happen, you would be noticed.
So for me - this wasn’t just a walk - it was a real time demonstration of many of the core themes of urbanism working together in concert that help inform the perception of downtown.
Some final key takeaways
A core theme of urbanism is just the simple fact that your average person doesn’t notice the invisible ways that car culture, hostile architecture, and poor planning affect our behaviour and, in my cases, they interpret it completely backwards.
My hope is that people (and especially you, if you’re reading this) can interpret this in the correct ways:
Notice what happens when we take our streets back from cars and fill them with people.
More people walking downtown has a huge impact on perception of safety.
People walking along commerce corridors is good for all businesses.
That safety is bi-directional - more people downtown is more eyes looking out for folks who may be overdosing in a snowbank, need narcan or other medical attention.
All season activation is viable. Yes, the weather VERY MUCH cooperated last night but an argument I hear often about urbanism in PG is we’re a winter city - I think last night is evidence that can be a positive.
Listen - I’m not saying that a gigantic winter festival is feasible every night. Or even every weekend. This is not me misinterpreting the success of one event as a paradigm shift as urbanism in Prince George.
I want to introduce a quick quote here that I really love and a term I think applies to this feeling coined by Brent Toderian - the “sticky street.”
“Things like patios, food carts or trucks combined with attractive seating, street performers, or just really lively store windows that draw a crowd, all contribute to making a street more “sticky.” … A street is sticky if as you move along it, you’re constantly enticed to slow down, stop and linger to enjoy the public life around you.”
I’m saying that these events, like Farmers Markets, like other outdoor festivals in our downtown, give us signals we need to pay attention to.
People do like to go downtown when there’s something worth going downtown for and maybe, just maybe, they will stick around if the deal is enticing enough.
That’s all! I hope you have a good weekend and remember that Black Friday is great but so is supporting local businesses that maybe can’t offer you 65% off because they aren’t a billion dollar corporation OKAY BYE.
Great observations Darrin. I wasn’t able to attend but wish I had after reading your synopsis. I spent a week in Amsterdam in the Netherlands last year and left feeling compelled to find similar urban spaces where cars are the third or fourth tier of priority. Heck, even boats have more priority than cars in AMS.
But the best quote of all from your collection of insights was the reference to the ever menacing boogeyman that is PG’s unhoused population, “largely keeping to themselves and going about their business”. Despite my sarcasm, I am not afraid to walk downtown PG either.
Keep up the great writing, I enjoy your perspective!